Remote connection to a local network, such as in the case of a telecommuter dialing in to the corporate network from home or while traveling, is becoming more and more ubiquitous. Typically, a remote user will dial in to the corporate network via a wide area network (WAN), such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN), via a modem. The remote user will then access computing devices located at the corporate location, typically over a local area network (LAN). Due to the available bandwidth and channel capacity, the access speed of the LAN is typically many times greater than the access speed of the WAN. The computing devices accessed by the remote user are typically referred to as “server systems” or “servers.” The servers contain the files that the remote user wishes to access and work on. In conventional dial-in arrangements, the remote user must communicate over both the WAN (to access the corporate location) and the LAN (to access the files located on the servers that are connected to the LAN). Unfortunately, this arrangement consumes time and processing resources because of the typically restricted access speed of the WAN.
Therefore, there is a need for a system in which a remote user may access files located on a corporate LAN without the need for accessing the WAN for each file request.